Non Alcoholic Substitutes for Alcohol/Wine in Cooking

Here’s a listing of various substitutions – and again, I can take no credit for much of this; I’ve garnered information over the years, checked my books and scoured the web. Let me know if something works really well, or conversely, if it doesn’t. Check also under Alcohol/Wine Substitutesfor a lot of discussion and the guidelines I use for substituting. Scroll down to the bottom of that page ratios and suggestions for wine and alcohol substitutes both with and without alcohol in recipes requiring larger amounts.

Beef Stew with Wine (or not) and Bacon.

Here are recommendations for some specific substitutions, all non-alcoholic and in alphabetical order:

Brandy – 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of brandy or rum extract for 2 tablespoons of Brandy. When liquid amount is critical to the recipe, use water or fruit juices corresponding to flavor of brandy, for instance, white grape juice, apple cider or apple juice, diluted peach pear or apricot syrups. See apricot brandy, apple brandy, calvados,

Kirsch – (Substitute equal amounts of liquid.) Kirsch – Cherry cider or black cherry, raspberry, boysenberry, currant, or grape juice or syrup. Substitute same amount of liquid as called for in the recipe.

Rum – White grape juice, pineapple juice, or apple juice in equal liquid amounts as called for in the recipe. Can also use these juices with 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of non-alcoholic rum, almond or vanilla extract added.

Red Burgundy – Red wine vinegar, grape juice or non-alcoholic wine.

Red Wine – Sweet or dry non-alcoholic wine with a tablespoon of vinegar added to cut the sweetness, grape juice, cranberry juice, grape jelly, tomato juice, beef broth, liquid drained from vegetables, or water. Use equal amounts of liquid as called for in the recipe.

Tequila – Cactus juice or nectar. If I’m making a recipe that calls for a small bit of tequila, I sometimes use a squirt or two of lime, instead. If the recipe already has lime, I’ll just leave the tequila out. In a marinade I might add a dash of white vinegar.

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9 thoughts on “Non Alcoholic Substitutes for Alcohol/Wine in Cooking”

Hi, Thank you for both posts on alcohol/wine/non-alcoholic substitutes, very informative & definitely something I will refer back to.
I have a question for you with a recipe I’m making, Sticky Chilli Beef Ribs. It seems to have an Asian type of flavour profile with ginger, garlic, lime Sriracha chilli sauce, smoked paprika, maple syrup, soy sauce, cinnamon stick, 1/2 cup chicken stock, 1/4 Chinese cooking wine & 250ml of apple cider. Meat is browned & reserved scraped marinade liquids cinnamon stick added, cover, cook 3 hours in an oven. When I’ve made before I usually get an alcoholic apple cider. However I have no apple cider, the alcohol I do have is white wine vinegar, rice wine vinegar, sake, rum & brandy, also, have some Granny Smith apples. Questions: should I increase the chicken stock, or peel, grate or juice the apples, add some white wine vinegar as well, what do you think would be a good substitution for the 250ml of apple cider? Stumped.

When I do recipes like this and have no cider, I just use apple juice and a teaspoon or two of vinegar. You just want a little sticky sweet & a touch of sour from that apple cider, it sounds like. It has SO much flavor going on I don’t think you have to worry too much. The recipe sounds marvelous!! Gosh, I’d love to try it!!!

Hi Drucella, we were tied up all day, so I hope I’m not too late. You could use almost anything for this – I’ve never had strawberry pie with bourbon, but any whisky would give very close results, brandy would be good or you could just go another direction and use any type of a fruity spirit – like Grand Marnier, or a Framboise. I’d use the same amount.

Thanks for the tips! If my recipe calls for 1/2 cup of dry white wine, say for a pasta cream sauce, would I use a full 1/2 cup or white wine vinegar? Or would I dilute it with equal amounts of water or non-alcoholic white wine? Thanks!

Hi Gary, if you have non-alcoholic white wine I’d use that with a teaspoon of vinegar if you want. For a creamy pasta sauce, I’d personally not use any vinegar, just more cream or milk. The vinegar would likely taste strong, but you’d only use a teaspoon or so if you wanted to try it.

I’m assuming you’re sauteeing something, then adding in the wine and reducing, then adding in the cream?